I am gravitating toward getting a 21-23 foot class C and towing my Mazda on a dolly. As in my contemplated full-time adventures, I am going to be camping in national and state parks, I anticipate that I'll encounter many campsites that are incompatible with the combined length of my contemplated setup as well as the inability to back up. So I may have to drop the dolly+toad outside, take the rig into the campground, get set up, retrieve the car--but what about the dolly? Solutions seem to be confined to a) wheel the thing back to my campsite by hand--difficult at best, often impossible b) just leave it there c) just leave it there, but chain it to a tree or something.If anyone deals with this issue on a regular basis, I'd like to know how comfortable you might feel with leaving the dolly outside or on the fringes of the campground; also, how tolerant are authorities/campground owners of dollies being left alone?The pain-in-the-ass factor of various solutions isn't relevant--I just want to know if lone tow dollies tend to survive their loneliness. I've noticed, in national park campgrounds, that nobody even tries to bring in a toad on a dolly, because very few of the sites there are pull-through, even if the length isn't an issue. I would expect the busier campgrounds to forbid you to drop your toad outside, but if you don't ask, you can never be told "no"...

Your issues is the reason we went another way.

We see lots of tow dollies parked inside the campgrounds in visitor parking areas or other on site designated areas...Lots of RVers have dollies or even bring boats with them and most campgrounds are aware of this and make accommodations.Other option is to tow 4 downCall ahead.

Have a hitch on the rear of the toad and that will allow you to drop both, take the MH in the park, then use the toad to tow the dolly back to the MH and slide the tongue of the dolly under the chassis of the MH to store it out of the way.

Ditto what Horsedoc said. I always put a receiver hitch on my toad to use it to spot dollies, trailers, etc. Much easier to maneuver than any motorhome - B, B+, C or A.

I pull into a CG in a 29' Class C, with toad & dolly, unload the toad,unhook the dolly & put it all the way at the back of the site, then back the RV in so that the rear bumper is hanging over the tongue of the dolly, & the ramp part of the dolly hangs over the back of the site, this usually leaves enough room to back the car in, in front of the RV, or crossways in front of the RV, depends on site length. Many CG's have overflow parking for dollys, boats & trailers.

Leaving a tow dolly outside the campground | Good Sam Community

15 Replies

Deb_and_Ed_M
Explorer II
Jan 04, 2016
Dutch_12078 wrote:

Best to chain and lock the dolly to something solid. A hitch lock alone is worthless, since it only takes a minute to wrap a chain or strap around the dolly tongue and a trailer hitch or rear bumper and head down the road with it. The lock can then be cut at the thief's leisure.

Or use a clamp-on wheel lock? I agree that a dolly is a pretty easy (and desirable) thing to steal, so I would want mine AT my campsite.
mowermech
Explorer
Jan 04, 2016
There is a little two-wheel "trailer dolly" available from Harbor Freight that makes moving a car dolly very easy and simple.
Just drop the car dolly hitch onto the trailer dolly ball, grab the handle and walk away. Yes, if you have to go up an incline it will be more difficult, and great caution is necessary coming back down said incline.
I assembled mine with wing nuts so it would be easy to take apart and put together. When disassembled, it fits nicely in a basement compartment. I used it frequently on our trip from MT to GA and back, and still use it with my little ATV trailer. It is, as I am fond of saying, "Handier than pockets on a shirt!"
check it out at your local Harbor Freight store!
For those who detest Harbor Freight, Northern Tool has similar units.
2gypsies1
Explorer III
Jan 04, 2016
We used state and national parks along with national forests 90% of our 16 years of full-timing. We had no problem fitting our 40' motorhome and Jeep onto a site. Although we towed 4-down, I can't imagine that you would have a problem with a 23' Class C & the dolly.

Also, I thought you could back up with the dolly?

We have seen those with dollys just pull ahead of the campsite a short distance, unload the car and park it a short time in a nearby empty campsite or at the restroom or even alongside the road. Then push the dolly to the rear of the campsite and then back into the site. It shouldn't take that long to do especially if you have someone else along to drive and park the car.

If you can backup with the dolly, unload the car and back up with the dolly leaving it attached.
Dutch_12078
Explorer II
Jan 03, 2016
mkl654321 wrote:
Horsedoc wrote:
Have a hitch on the rear of the toad and that will allow you to drop both, take the MH in the park, then use the toad to tow the dolly back to the MH and slide the tongue of the dolly under the chassis of the MH to store it out of the way.

Good idea, but you can't mount any kind of hitch on the rear of a Mazda 3--you can't even tow a tricycle with it.

Etrailer.com lists M3 hitches for 2004 to 2016 models.

www.etrailer.com/vm/Mazda/3/hitch
mkl654321
Explorer
Jan 03, 2016
Horsedoc wrote:
Have a hitch on the rear of the toad and that will allow you to drop both, take the MH in the park, then use the toad to tow the dolly back to the MH and slide the tongue of the dolly under the chassis of the MH to store it out of the way.

Good idea, but you can't mount any kind of hitch on the rear of a Mazda 3--you can't even tow a tricycle with it.
Dutch_12078
Explorer II
Jan 03, 2016
dbates wrote:

If you have to park the dolly in an unsecure location be sure to lock the ball catch with a harden steel padlock. That way they can't just cut it with a hacksaw or bolt cutters but would have to use a cutting torch to get it off (that's I know from personal experience when I left it at a service center & forgot my dolly key).

Dave

Best to chain and lock the dolly to something solid. A hitch lock alone is worthless, since it only takes a minute to wrap a chain or strap around the dolly tongue and a trailer hitch or rear bumper and head down the road with it. The lock can then be cut at the thief's leisure.
dbates
Explorer
Jan 03, 2016
If you do as "bukhrn & kalynzoo" suggested above you won't have a problem. In 11 years and 60,000 mile of pulling a dolly I've only had to park the dolly off campsite twice (both were at upscale CG). I will have to admit I don't camp in National or State parks very often but if you can get a larger space, park the dolly behind the MH and pulling the MH over the dolly tongue you seldom, if ever, will have a problem.

If you have to park the dolly in an unsecure location be sure to lock the ball catch with a harden steel padlock. That way they can't just cut it with a hacksaw or bolt cutters but would have to use a cutting torch to get it off (that's I know from personal experience when I left it at a service center & forgot my dolly key).

Dave
mpierce
Explorer
Jan 03, 2016
Horsedoc wrote:
Have a hitch on the rear of the toad and that will allow you to drop both, take the MH in the park, then use the toad to tow the dolly back to the MH and slide the tongue of the dolly under the chassis of the MH to store it out of the way.

This.

Or, put the dolly in first, depending on site.
kalynzoo
Explorer
Jan 03, 2016
I used a dolly for 25 years. We now tow 4 down, but it is more because of my back and knees...I like 4 down, but starting 2016 most towables will require even more setup for towing...like pulling 3 or 4 fuses or disconnecting the battery (losing clock, radio, etc?)
Back to your question. When pulling the dolly into parks with smaller spaces I would unhitch in front of the campsite. Usually I could push the dolly into the site and then drive the RV in partially driving over the dolly. In some campgrounds I could push the dolly partially under the rear of the RV to stay within the assigned space. Still in other campgrounds the spaces were wide enough to accommodate the dolly off to the side of the RV. Only one in the 25 years was I asked to park the dolly off site. That was at a very high end campground, but the campground provided a tractor and driver to move the dolly to storage and return the dolly at checkout...not really a problem at all. Demco now makes a partially folding dolly, but again, in my 25 years using a regular Demco KarKaddy II I never had a problem with campsite storage.
Happy Trails.
DutchmenSport
Explorer
Jan 03, 2016
Horsedoc wrote:
Have a hitch on the rear of the toad and that will allow you to drop both, take the MH in the park, then use the toad to tow the dolly back to the MH and slide the tongue of the dolly under the chassis of the MH to store it out of the way.

Ditto! This is exactly what I've seen from everyone who has a Toad, in years and years of camping.